Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse's Dark Night of the Soul to Finally Get Proper Release

In the spring of 2009, production guru Danger Mouse intended to release Dark Night of the Soul, his vast collaborative project with Sparklehorse that included musical contributions from the likes of Iggy Pop, the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne, Julian Casablancas and Vic Chesnutt, among others, as well as visuals from David Lynch. Unfortunately, the project was blocked from a release because of a strange legal dispute with EMI.

Instead, a book of David Lynch's photography was released with a blank CD. Along with the blank CD was the statement, "For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will." The album leaked to the Internet, and those who wanted to hear it could grab the record via the illegal downloading route.

Now, ten months later, EMI has finally figured out that some money could be made from this album and has decided to release a proper physical copy of the record. Speaking with BBC 6 Music, a spokesperson from EMI said, "We can confirm that EMI are working with Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse) again, and are delighted to be doing so. Further information on releases will follow shortly."

Burton hinted that the album would be out this summer, saying, "The problems of last year are last year, so hopefully it will be out soon in June or something like that."

In the meantime, he's keeping busy with Broken Bells, his collaborative project with the Shins' James Mercer. "It's really enjoyable music to make," Burton said of the project. "This reminded me of why I wanted to make music in the beginning. As long as I can keep doing it, I will. I'm not really interested in too much else right now."

Broken Bells' debut album is due in stores on Tuesday (March 9). Make sure to check out our recent Questionnaire with the duo, as well as a full stream of the album on Exclaim.ca beginning on the record's release date.